App etiquette: do’s and don’ts of mobile apps in ecommerce

In 2024 the total time spent using retail apps blew past 100 billion hours globally and over three quarters of retail site visits in the US came from smartphones. 

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The takeaway? A strong mobile presence isn’t optional anymore—it’s critical. But having a mobile-friendly version of your website isn’t enough. To truly stand out, you need a seamless, thoughtful app experience.

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Over my career in ecommerce—from early days at Shopify to leading sales at a mobile app builder, and now as co-founder of Reactiv—I’ve seen firsthand what separates a great mobile ecommerce experience from a forgettable one. 

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Working with some of the biggest brands in the industry has taught me not just what works, but also what to avoid entirely.

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In this article, I’ll share the key “do’s and don’ts” of mobile ecommerce apps, offering actionable insights to help you launch an app that wows your customers and drives results.

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Mobile commerce trends: being mobile-friendly is not enough

Customers have high expectations about their shopping experience on all devices. Having a mobile-friendly site is no longer enough. In fact, it’s now the bare minimum. 

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Customers not only prefer making purchases on dedicated mobile apps, but they’re more likely to purchase too: This year, the sales conversion rate of dedicated mobile apps was 3.5% vs 2% for mobile websites. Mobile apps also had an average cart abandonment rate of 20% vs 97% for mobile websites. 

That is a staggering difference. 

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If you haven’t thought about developing an app for your ecommerce brand yet, now’s the time.

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Building for success: the do’s of modern app building

Building an app can be confusing and overwhelming. I’m here to make it easy. Let’s start positive and explore the do’s, first.

Have a clear business strategy and outcome

While I just spent the first part of this article raving about mobile apps, it doesn’t mean you should immediately rush out and build.

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When launching a mobile app for your brand, ask yourself:

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• Why should a mobile app exist for my brand?
• What does it mean for my business?
• What does it mean for my customers?

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When those answers are clear, the strategy for your app and the purpose it’ll serve for your customers will reveal itself. If your app doesn’t have a good use case, you’ll be fighting an uphill battle to drive customer adoption. 

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Work smarter, not harder, and build an app that serves a strong purpose for you, your business, and your customers.

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Plan for long-term growth

Having a mobile app isn’t passive — it needs to be actively tied into marketing campaigns and treated as an important platform for your business. Growth must be fostered and re-engagement is crucial. Some questions to consider:

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• How will you sustain incentives over time to maintain steady growth?
• How will your app marketing strategies organically tie into your planned marketing campaigns?

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Regularly keep your app updated and optimized post-launch and ensure it’s compatible with new OS versions and devices. It’s also important to stay in compliance with both the App Store and Google Play Store rules. Follow each store’s guidelines for features like signing in with Apple/Google, account deletion, and subscription cancellation.

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Your app should be an important part of your marketing and business efforts moving forward — ensure it gets the attention it deserves.

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Prioritize re-engagement strategies

Two questions:

1. What are the incentives for customers to download your app vs just using your mobile site? 
2. What are the incentives for customers to re-visit your app? 

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Having a re-engagement strategy can help answer those questions.

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I recommend incentivizing app downloads and repeat visits with in-app offers for new customers and loyalty rewards for repeat users.

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But here’s the catch: not every shopper is ready to commit to downloading your app. This is where Reactiv Clips shine. 

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Reactiv Clips are lightweight, instant app experiences that deliver the full functionality of a mobile app without requiring a download. Think of them as mini-apps that shoppers can access directly from a link—whether in an email, SMS, or ad—or by scanning a QR code.

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These clips create an effortless way for shoppers to interact with your brand, browse products, and even complete purchases—all without leaving their browsers.

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Once a shopper interacts with a Reactiv Clip, it opens up a unique opportunity: an 8-hour window where you can send personalized push notifications without needing them to opt in. These notifications let you instantly re-engage users with tailored messages like abandoned cart reminders, exclusive offers, or product recommendations.

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It’s simple: an app can only drive revenue if customers keep coming back. Give them a reason to. Reactiv Clips give you a seamless, innovative way to make that happen.

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Ensure your app reflects your brand

You’ve already built and cultivated a brand, so it only makes sense to continue that with your app experience.

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While it can be tempting to use an app to try creative new looks and approaches to your brand and take advantage of the medium, businesses with consistent brands see 33% higher revenue and 20% higher overall growth when compared to brands with off-brand content.

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Don’t shape your brand to a mobile experience, shape your mobile experience to your brand.

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Leverage integrations

Take advantage of your marketing stack! 

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Leverage integrations to provide features like live chat and product reviews to enhance customer engagement while simultaneously improving the customer experience.

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If you’re looking to build your app with Reactiv, we provide many integration options, such as Klayvio for email and SMS marketing and GA4, so you can have consistent, relevant analytics across all platforms. 

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Your app shouldn’t be siloed away from the rest of your marketing stack. Leverage integrations to enhance the app experience for both you and your customers. 

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Craft intuitive user journeys

I can’t tell you how many apps I’ve uninstalled because they’re immediately challenging to navigate.

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UX is as important on an app as it is on a website. Craft intuitive user journeys to provide a smooth shopping experience that is built to foster conversions.

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As Al Doan, founder of Missouri Star Quilt Company shared:

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“On the website, it can be like Times Square. Pick your poison. Here’s our billboard—we're going to put this all up here, and you guys find what you want. On an app, you pick the thing you want people to click on and give them two or three options in there. You're trying to get them into a journey that's customized for them.” 

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Keep the app’s home screen organized and uncluttered, and tailor the shopping experience with tools like featured collections and promo banners.

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Focus on the desired user journey from opening the app to conversion and keep it obstacle-free while promoting intuitive discovery.

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Optimize your app for performance

Customer experience is paramount to app retention after the initial use. Avoid frustrating customers by ensuring your app is optimized, especially after new firmware releases. 

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Focus on usability and ensure your app has fast response times, smooth scrolling, and seamless navigation to provide a strong customer experience and encourage repeat use.

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Apple has specific rules targeting some usability features as well that you’ll need to follow to avoid getting delisted. These include:

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• Styling and placement of Sign-in with Apple and Apple Pay features
• Making it reasonably easy for customers to delete their accounts
• Selling of digital content (ebooks, music, movies, subscriptions)

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Customers don’t have to use your app, so they need to want to. Make sure it’s optimized and responsive at all times so they’re encouraged to re-engage.

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Incorporate express payment methods

Did you know you can improve conversion rates by 10 - 15% with an optimized payment process? 

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Apps are about convenience and providing a simple experience for your customers. Incorporating express payment methods like Shop Pay, Google Pay, and Apple Pay can significantly help with this.

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Reduce friction and avoid overcomplicating the sale — use express payment methods to avoid customers dropping due to a convoluted payment process.

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Modern app building: the don’ts

Now you know what makes a strong mobile app. Before you build yours, I want to highlight a few common mistakes I notice from brands as well. Avoid these pitfalls, and you’re golden!

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Don’t neglect analytics

There’s nothing more disheartening than realizing your analytics haven’t been tracking properly.

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Don’t miss out on valuable data — test your integrations like Klayvio and GA4 early to ensure reliable data collection.

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Analytics aren’t just a way to track conversions. Insights into how your customers use your app can provide valuable data, and you don’t want to miss out on learning that early.

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Don’t ignore customer feedback

Your customers are the key to your app’s success or failure, so it’s important to monitor customer feedback. 

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Reviews on the App Store and Google Play Store are a great way to do this, as well as keeping an eye on feedback shared on social media.

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Don’t chase feature parity with your website

This is one of the biggest mistakes I see from brands.

Your app is its own distinct entity. Don’t make it a carbon copy of your website—otherwise, what’s the point?

While both are built to drive conversions, customers use apps and websites differently, and the customer experience should reflect that. Instead of replicating your website, focus on optimizing for the unique possibilities of mobile shopping: clear visuals, functional linking, and value-added features that go beyond what your site can offer.

Take Med School Bro, for example. This education-focused ecommerce brand recognized that its mobile-first audience—pre-med and med students—needed more than just a website to access its resources. By launching a mobile app with Reactiv, they created a deeply personalized experience tailored to their customers' academic journeys.

The Med School Bro app offers features that aren’t possible on a traditional website, like:

• Daily quizzes and weekly trivia: These features allow students to test their knowledge on the go, keeping them engaged outside of traditional study methods.
• Hyper-personalized product recommendations: By analyzing quiz results and in-app behavior, the brand can deliver tailored offers, such as discounts on specific study guides, that directly address customer needs.
• Push notifications without opt-ins: Reactiv App Clips enable Med School Bro to reach users without requiring a download or opt-in. For example, they can send reminders for abandoned carts or personalized offers, bridging the gap between browsing and purchase.

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Brandon Portnoff, Co-Founder of Med School Bro, sums it up: “Our mobile app lets us be with customers throughout their entire journey. It gives us access to valuable data and enables us to engage them with timely, relevant messaging in ways we simply couldn’t on our website.”

By leveraging the unique capabilities of a mobile app, Med School Bro turned its app into a tool for retention, engagement, and conversion—not just an extension of its website.

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Don’t overuse push notifications

Customers opt-in for information, not to be annoyed.

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Push notifications can be a great marketing tool, but are easily overused. Use them strategically and sparingly to gently remind customers to return with lost cart reminders and exclusive offers.

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88% of users are more likely to engage with an app after 90 days if they’ve opted in to push notifications, so if customers have opted in they are ready and willing to engage. That being said, more than 50% of customers think that push notifications are annoying, and 37% of people would mute an app that sends more than 2 push notifications a week. You need to tread carefully. 

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Use push notifications to your advantage to re-engage customers, but don’t overuse and drive them away.

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Don’t reinvent the wheel

Mobile app conventions exist for a reason. Users want a familiar experience that just works.

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As I mentioned earlier, you want to style the app to match your brand to avoid confusing customers. Despite this, it’s okay to make tweaks to ensure you’re using native UX conventions that customers already know. This way, they’ll feel like pros right away. 

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A simple in-app experience will drive more conversions than a convoluted one.

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Don’t gate the experience behind a sign-up wall

35% of customers use a brand’s app because of convenience, and nothing is more inconvenient than a forced login. It may lead to more abandonment and even app rejection from app stores. 

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Instead, let customers browse without logging in and make it easy to remain signed in once they’ve created an account. 

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Reactiv Clips is a great tool for a lightning-fast, sign-in-free app experience. Learn more about Reactiv Clips here.

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Make it easier for customers to immediately start browsing your app to increase customer retention and reduce checkout friction.

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Don’t overlook incentives for app adoption

Brand loyalty alone won’t drive app downloads. 

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You might get your diehards, but once they download, growth isn’t going to come on its own. To encourage continuous app adoption, incentives are a great option. 

Here are a few proven strategies to drive app downloads and keep users engaged:

• Exclusive Discounts: Offer app-only discounts or flash sales that reward users for downloading and shopping through your app. For example, “Get 15% off your first app purchase!”
• Early Access: Give app users first dibs on new product launches or sales. Knowing they’ll have early access can encourage fans to download and engage.
• Loyalty Rewards: Enhance your loyalty program with app-exclusive perks, like bonus points or rewards for in-app purchases.
• Gamified Experiences: Use interactive features like daily quizzes, spin-to-win games, or challenges that can only be accessed through the app to make it fun and rewarding for customers to engage.
• Seamless Order Tracking: Encourage downloads post-purchase by offering app-only order tracking with instant updates and push notifications—no lost emails in inboxes.
• Personalized Recommendations: Use in-app behavior to provide tailored product suggestions or offers that feel unique to the customer.

By offering tangible benefits like exclusive discounts, you can grow the customer base of both your app and your brand as a whole.

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Don’t rely on app store paid ads

Take it from me: app store ads can work, but they’re just not great for commerce apps.

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Don’t get me wrong, they’re great for games and productivity apps. But if you’re trying to promote your ecommerce app, they don’t have much of an impact, and your advertising budget is better spent elsewhere.

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Instead, maximize your downloads by seamlessly integrating your app messaging into your existing campaign messaging.

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Technical essentials: the do’s and don’ts for app development

Hopefully, my list of the do’s and don’ts has made you feel more confident dipping your toes into the world of ecommerce apps. But there’s still a little more ground to cover!

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The technical aspect of app building is often intimidating for businesses looking to get into the app game for the first time. To help set you on the right track, I’ve compiled a small list of technical do’s and don’ts. 

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Get your tech hat on and read on!

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Technical app building do’s

• Adopt a modular approach - break down components into reusable, maintainable reusable parts. This also allows you to keep presentation components separate from business logic, providing better scalability for your app.
• Optimize performance - consistently optimize your app for performance and take measures to make sure it’s lightning-fast. Use optimized libraries like react-native-fast-image and performance boosters such as React.memo and useMemo to keep things nice and speedy.
• Prioritize cross-platform compatibility - the days of platform wars are long over! Performance should be strong on all devices. Ensure your in-app experience is smooth on both iOS and Android.
• Conduct rigorous testing - test rigorously and constantly leading up to launch. Include comprehensive testing for usability, security, and platform-specific functionality to ensure everything is running nicely under the hood.
• Focus on accessibility - accessibility is becoming more important than ever, and rightfully so. Focus on usability and accessibility so anyone who wants to use your app can use it. Implement accessibility features wherever possible and test your app with a screen reader to ensure inclusivity.

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Technical app building don’ts

• Don’t overuse complex state management - simplicity is not only key for your customers, but your back-end as well. Avoid libraries like Redux unless necessary. Use simpler tools like React Context to reduce overhead.
• Don’t neglect performance for long lists - replace ScrollView and instead use an optimized FlatList or SectionList. This will keep things moving smoothly as customers explore your app.
• Don’t hardcode font sizes - let your customers control how they view content while ensuring everything always displays properly on any screen. Use responsive libraries so you can adjust to user preferences.
• Don’t rely heavily on third-party libraries - avoid unnecessary dependencies that could bloat the app or introduce bugs. Keep things in-house as much as possible.

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One more “do”: build your app with Reactiv

I’m confident if you follow these do’s and don’ts, you can build a successful ecommerce app regardless of how you build it. But my recommendation to maximize success? Reactiv.

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Yes, I’m recommending the platform I co-founded, but it’s because we built it with these DO’s and DON’T’s in mind from the beginning.

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While the mobile app experience is crucial and irreplaceable, apps themselves are expensive, slow to build, and force customers to download before they can engage. Even when your app is released, scaling your mobile strategy can feel impossible. 

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Traditional apps are riddled with friction — slow downloads, low conversions, and no way to reconnect with shoppers who skip push notifications.

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Most people think this is the unavoidable reality of building an app, but Reactiv circumvents all of this.

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Reactiv lets you launch lightweight, fully-featured custom mobile experiences that convert faster, retarget ad clicks for free and engage shoppers instantly — no opt-ins or downloads needed.

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With Reactiv, you can:

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• Build and customize your app with modular React components that adapt to your needs
• Retarget every ad click through Reactiv Clips and build apps that convert without technical bottlenecks
• Customize your app to add unique pages and improve your brand experience.
• Launch an app faster and make updates at warp-speed.

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Why should you constantly have to choose between speed or quality? We want you to choose both, and Reactiv can make that possible. Get started here.

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